UrbanRhetoric

UrbanRhetoric

2.14.2016

DEADPOOL

This joint right here... ain't your every day Marvel Comics superhero movie.

Now, I may not have read a single word from a Deadpool comic, but I heard about him through friends who were fans. He always seemed like a cool idea. I didn't think it would be remotely as successful as the X-Men or Spiderman (or anything of that ilk). I was right. But I was so intrigued by Ryan Reynolds taking another stab at the superhero thing given the horribleness of that piping hot garbage of a movie called Green Lantern. The movie is ridiculous and it is from the very start. It doesn't take itself seriously and that is the perfect tone for this particular character. It's like what Clive Owen and Monic Bellucci's Shoot'em Up would have been if it were actually a good movie with better action and wittier, comedic dialogue.

VITALS

Tim Miller (was most notably the creative supervisor for visual effects on Scott Pilgrim vs The World, which basically makes him a newbie) - Director

ASIDE: I've been in love (well, in-crush) with Baccarin since her days on the entirely too short-lived Joss Whedon series Firefly back in 2002/3 and she is STILL fire (no pun intended) and talented as all hell.

Brianna Hildebrand (Prism, First Girl I Loved - in fairness, never heard of either of those movies, which makes Brianna a newbie as far as I'm concerned) - Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Leslie Uggams (Sugar Hill, and Kizzy from Roots - not to be confused with The Roots) - Blind Al

Gina Carano (Haywire, Fast & Furious 6) - Angel

IF YOU MUST KNOW

The movie's opening credits clue you into the type of irreverent tone the film will have. Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is not the quintessential anything. He's an ex-special forces cat who has a crap life. a smart mouth that runs non-stop, and a cynical approach to life that naturally masks the tiny sliver of a heart that he has buried deep... deep... deeeeeeeep down below his cantankerous exterior. He meets Vanessa (Baccarin) a woman of let's call it "questionable" repute and falls in love... just in time to find out he's dying. Set in the same world where the X-Men exist... Reynolds is given a not-so classic new lease on life. He loses everything, including Vanessa, but his sense of humor in the process.

This Valentine's Day movie has all the right elements for a date movie, but with a dark rated-R twist to it. Sex, constant graphic violence, adult humor, a bit of nudity and some grown up language would lead you to believe that ya better not brang ya kids... yet, that didn't stop the nominees for "Parent of the Year" in the theater I went to last night after 9pm from bringing the rugrats to see six strippers stripping, four Reynolds butt shots, 3 bullets in a-holes, 2 heads cut off, Baccarin get schtooped and a a partridge in a pear tree. Fly as Morena remains so many years post Firefly... this is no movie to drag your kids out to as it may lead to more questions than you want to answer in the movie theater.

Anyway, the movie tells you everything you need to know in the opening credits. They forego the usual names and tell you what role each person in the film plays (e.g., instead of saying Edward Skrein, they just say "Villain with British Accent"). Yes, it is that kind of movie. Ajax is a mutant making war profiteer that has messed with the life of our antihero.

The comic book version of Deadpool did not just break the fourth wall (for those who don't know, that basically means he spoke directly to the readers as if he were stepping out into the real world/audience and away from the fictional story), he shattered it. In the movie, Deadpool is not just a narrator; apparently, he is a self-aware character - to the extent that he lets us all know that he knows we're watching and every time he does it we laugh.

It's impossible to tell you what you should think about this movie (usually, I'm quite comfortable telling people that they should agree with me as I am firmly of the belief that life would be better if more people did agree). It is a thoroughly irreverent flick with some terribly crude potty-mouthed humor. It is ultra-violent for the sake of simply being violent. And, majestically, the only N-word dropped in the entire film was from a DMX song in the soundtrack - hmmm, I guess you can be edgy, have gratuitous violence, without having characters unnecessarily do that. Could some one call QT and let him know?

Deadpool, is not for the kiddies. Hell, it may not even be a good date night movie - unless, you're like me and date someone who has a little bit of a dark and twisted side of their sense of humor. Nevertheless, it is fun and funny. Skip the after movie scene and just google it. It was more of an announcement than a legit-scene. Aside 2: Shout out to Regal Cinema Battery Park for handling that insane crowd so well and for putting their security to work keeping people from skipping lines. That job looked like it sucked (and I'd wager you get paid in buckets of popcorn, so it must have sucked hard). This was bound to be pretty good given that I've never disliked anything Baccarin has done (I choose to forget that absurd V remake), Reynolds was able to successfully find a character with the humor balance, and most importantly - the guys from Zombieland (awesomeness) wrote the doggone film.

IMTHATDUDE gives Deadpool: 4

RATING SYSTEM:5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.

who?

UrbanRhetoric is written mostly by pemora with some help by her rad friends (IMTHATDUDE, Paj1, DOUGH, jayare20k, MissDTM, Charlie Mango). They all have a love/hate relationship with pop culture. If you want to read more and/or would like to contribute, follow us on Twitter. Holler.